Imaging systems typically integrate a processor and software that work together to provide various imaging functions such as printing. Imaging systems are often required to combine multiple images, called elements, onto a composed page. A composed page is generally a composite of page elements from several sources, such as user-placed images, scanned data, text and other types of images. The page composition process positions images in the appropriate location on a page and also provides rotation and mirroring effects. For color imaging systems, in order to first determine a color for each pixel on the page, it is necessary to first read all of the elements which potentially affect the pixel, even if only one of several elements will eventually define the color of the pixel. One page composition technique uses a frame buffer for the composed page. All of the elements are drawn into the frame buffer, which then represents the composite image. However, a large frame buffer is required and the image elements must be moved from memory into the frame buffer. When elements overlap, some of the element data may be moved into the buffer but subsequently ignored because another element covers it. Additionally, image elements are typically compressed in memory and must be decompressed into the frame buffer which operates only on uncompressed data. Subsequently, a large bandwidth overhead is incurred in the imaging system to move data in and out of the frame buffer during a page composition.